EARLIER: A 12-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man were airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after a head-on crash between two dirt bikes on a motocross track near Tieri on Saturday.

RACQ CQ Rescue was tasked about 4.15pm and had to reconfigure the aircraft for dual stretchers before flying 262 nautical miles to retrieve the two patients and transfer them to Mackay Base Hospital.

The 12-year-old boy, from Tieri, sustained multiple fractures and the 21-year-old Mackay man suffered severe concussion and deep lacerations in the crash.

RACQ CQ Rescue arrived on scene about 5.50pm, landing in a grassed area adjacent to the motocross track.

The trauma team, including a doctor and an intensive care paramedic, spent almost three hours on the ground stabilising the two patients for transfer to further specialist care in Mackay.

The helicopter arrived at Mackay Base Hospital with both patients aboard about 9pm.

An RACQ CQ Rescue spokesperson said it had unfortunately been an incredibly busy start to 2016 for the Mackay-based rescue helicopter which had flown 854 nautical miles (1581km) in just three days to airlift eight patients to hospital.

About 1am Sunday, an American tourist on Hayman Island was the third patient to be airlifted from the Whitsundays this weekend.

The rescue helicopter had also been tasked to Proserpine on Friday and Saturday as well as Glenden, the spokesperson said.